Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, June 19: The registration process for the first batch of Agniveers will commence on June 24 and the online examination will be held on July 24 under the Centre’s new Agnipath recruitment plan.
“Registration process for the first batch of Agniveers will start from June 24. The phase-I online examination process would start on July 24. The first batch would be enrolled by December and training would commence by December 30,” Air Marshal SK Jha said addressing a joint press conference of the tri-services.
“From November 21 this year, the first naval ‘Agniveers’ will start reaching the training establishment INS Chilka, Odisha. Both female and male Agniveers are allowed for this,” Navy Chief of Personnel, Vice Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said.
On Sunday, Department of Military Affairs (DMA) Additional Secretary Lt Gen Anil Puri, Indian Army Adjutant General Lt Gen Bansi Ponappa, Indian Navy Chief of Personnel Vice Admiral Dinesh Tripathi, and Indian Air Force Personnel in-charge Air Marshal SK Jha held a joint press conference on the Agniveer scheme.
Lt Gen Puri stated that the Centre will begin recruiting 46,000 Army recruits in order to ‘analyse’ the scheme.
“In next 4-5 years, our intake (of soldiers) will be 50,000-60,000 & will increase to 90,000 – 1 lakh subsequently. We’ve started small at 46,000 to analyse the scheme…and to build up infra capacity,” said Lt Gen Puri.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met with the three Service chiefs earlier on Sunday. On June 14, the Union Cabinet authorised Agnipath, a recruiting scheme for Indian youth to serve in the three Armed Forces services. Those who are picked under this scheme would be known as Agniveers.
People between the ages of 17.5 and 21 will be enrolled in the service for a four-year period under the scheme. During this time, they will be paid a monthly salary of between 30,000 and 40,000 dollars plus allowances, with most of them being forced to retire without gratuity or pension benefits.
